Multiply Your Online Sales by 100 Times or More
Issue #2211
- WEALTHY: Is investing in China too risky? (Andrew Gordon)
- HEALTHY: Make flights more comfortable for sore knees (Dr. Bill Stillwell)
- WISE: Mark Twain on advertising
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:
- The marketing model that’s made ETR such a huge success (Bob Bly)
- 3 ways to distinguish yourself from the rest of the pack (Charlie Byrne)
- It’s Good to Know… about cellphone use in India (Michael Masterson)
- Add the Indian word "khaki" to your vocabulary
If Anyone You Love is Suffering…
"Please," said Hugh Downs at the start of his recent TV broadcast, "if anyone you love is suffering from heart disease, cancer, arthritis, diabetes, memory problems — don’t miss this!" He then proceeded to document an amazing outpouring of new cures, from a project unprecedented in the history of science…
Millions watched in awe as legendary newsman Hugh Downs introduced over 498 world-acclaimed traditional and alternative doctors — the greatest medical team ever assembled!
A Day in the Life of China - Glimpses of the Good and the Bad
Glance through any major paper and you’ll get an idea of why China holds so much promise - and has a certain amount of risk you shouldn’t ignore.
Here are some of the headlines in a recent issue of The Wall Street Journal…
Risk #1: Rights of the Population Often Ignored
- Headline: Why Chinese Dam Is Forcing Yet Another Mass Exodus
- Headline: Prominent Chinese Activist Loses Appeal, Faces Prison Term
Risk #2: Crashes and Glitches
- Headline:Olympics to Sell Tickets by Lottery (story about computer crashing)
Risk #3: Political Tensions Between U.S. and China
- Headline: U.S., China Remain Split in Talks
- Headline: Moving China on Darfur
Risk #4: Free-Market Open Economy Still a Pipe Dream
- Headline: Why Goldman’s Bid for Stake in China Company Failed
- Headline: Hong Kong Slumps (story about government policy reversal hurting the Hong Kong market)
And here’s what offsets all of those risks for many investors…
The Upside: Fastest Economic and Stock Growth in the World
- Headline: New Pistons Are Driving Global Growth (story about China and other emerging economies possibly staving off a U.S. downturn)
- Headline: How Big Is PetroChina? (story about the "world’s biggest company")
To get a piece of the biggest and fastest-growing market in the world, I’ll take China’s downsides any day of the week. All countries have risks for investors (even the U.S.). But the size and speed of China’s economic modernization is truly unique.
A few ETFs focus on China. But a better way to invest is to find a Chinese company whose IPO occurred 1-2 years ago. That’s long enough for the initial enthusiasm over the company’s going public to die down. And that’s plenty of time to figure out if the company is performing well enough to warrant what is probably a high valuation.
[Ed. Note: ETR’s Investment Director Andrew Gordon is the editor of INCOME, a monthly financial advisory service that uncovers income-generating stocks that promise safety (first and foremost), along with much-higher-than-average profit potential.]
"Many a small thing has been made large by the right kind of advertising."
Mark Twain
Multiply Your Online Sales by 100 Times or More This Year
By Bob Bly
Are Web metrics as difficult to measure and analyze as the experts claim? Not really. At least not when you follow the marketing business model used by Agora Inc. and Early to Rise.
In the "Agora Model"… also known as the "Organic Model"… you generate sales by sending e-mail marketing messages to your opt-in list of online subscribers. And there are only two metrics that are really important in e-mail marketing: your click-through rate (CTR) and your conversion rate.
When you understand how this works - and I’m about to explain it - you can potentially multiply your online revenues 100 times. Here’s how…
When you send an e-mail marketing message to your subscriber list, it should include a hyperlink to a "landing page." A landing page is a Web page dedicated to selling a single product, such as an e-book, course, conference, or newsletter.
The CTR is the percentage of the people you send your e-mail to who click on the link and go to your landing page. If you have 100,000 subscribers and 1,000 click on the link to go to your landing page, the CTR is 1 percent.
The CTR generally ranges between 1 percent and 10 percent. And because many factors affect it - the product, the offer, the list, the subject line - by writing a stronger e-mail message, you might be able to go from the low end of 1 percent to the high end of 10 percent… getting 10 times as many people to click to your landing page.
The conversion rate is the percentage of the people who click onto the landing page who actually buy the product. In our example, if you have 1,000 clicks to your landing page and get 10 orders, your conversion rate is 1 percent.
The conversion rate, too, usually ranges from 1 percent on the low end to 10 percent or sometimes higher on the high end. If, by writing stronger copy for your landing page, you raise your number from the low end of 1 percent to the high end of 10 percent, you would be multiplying your sales tenfold.
But here’s where the real leverage in online marketing comes into play…
If you improve your click-through rate with better e-mail copy - and boost your conversion rate with stronger landing page copy - you can potentially get 100 times more orders and revenue from every e-mail marketing message you send to your list.
Let’s say you are selling a $100 product.
You send an e-mail to your list of 100,000 subscribers. It generates a 1 percent CTR, resulting in 1,000 visits to your landing page. With a 1 percent conversion rate, you generate 10 orders, which gives you gross revenues of $1,000 for the promotion.
Now you go back and write killer copy for the e-mail and the landing page. And, again, you send it to your list of 100,000 subscribers.
This time, your e-mail generates a whopping 10 percent CTR, resulting in 10,000 clicks to the landing page. And your landing page converts 10 percent of those people to buyers, generating 1,000 orders. That means gross revenues of $100,000 - or 100 times more than your last effort.
The big boost comes from multiplying two factors: the increased CTR times the increased conversion rate. Each factor individually increases your sales results tenfold. But 10 x 10 gives you a hundredfold increase in orders and revenue.
Yes, there are other metrics to measure.
Some Internet marketers worry about e-mail open rates, for example. And I like to keep an eye on opt-out rates (which I’ll cover in a future article). But just mastering the two most important e-mail marketing metrics - the CTR and the conversion rate - can multiply your Internet marketing profits 100 times.
Even smaller increases can translate into big gains. For instance, if you just double your click-through rate and double your conversion rate, you can quadruple your sales and revenue.
Easy? No. Possible? Yes. Worth the effort? You bet.
[Ed. Note: Best-selling author Bob Bly is a contributor to ETR’s new business-building program, The Internet Money Club. Not only will this program teach you techniques that copywriting experts use to write sales-boosting copy, it will also show you how to pick a product, set up a website, and pull in targeted, qualified traffic. The Internet Money Club is entirely sold out. But you can click here to get on our waiting list.
Sign up for Bob’s free monthly e-zine, The Direct Response Letter, and get more than $100 in free bonuses.]
Make Over 764% from the Silver Supply Crunch!
If you can spot which commodities are undergoing huge supply shortages, you’re on track to make huge gains. Consider:
- Uranium prices soared over 1,200% in the past five years as new nuclear power plants went online.
- Copper prices have zoomed over 426% as world demand hits unprecedented levels.
But had you owned resource companies that took advantage of these supply crunches, you could’ve made MUCH more.
Click here right now to learn the name of one company poised to make early investors over 764% from the silver supply crunch.
3 Easy Steps to a Higher-Quality Business
By Charlie Byrne
"Here, try these on so we know they fit," my wife gently commanded me.
Knowing we were heading up to Maine, Peggy had ordered me four wool shirts.
Now I was dreading the new-shirt routine. You know. Pull out the pins. Remove the plastic tab from the front of the collar, also pinned in. Take out the cardboard ring around the rest of the collar. Feel around until you find the one or two "hidden" pins… and hope you don’t prick your finger in the process.
But wait. What’s this?
I removed the plastic wrap and nearly fell to the floor in shock. Where were the pins? The shirt was simply folded together, neatly and firmly. It was ready to wear in 10 seconds.
What were all those pins for anyway? I never quite understood. And now LL Bean’s gotten rid of them.
LL Bean is one of my favorite retailers. They know how to dazzle their customers - just by making simple changes like this.
How do they know which changes to make? I’m guessing they have a system in place that goes something like this…
Quality-Improvement Step #1: Take the time to put yourself through your customer’s shopping experience. (Anonymously, of course.) Purchase a product. Use it. Call Customer Service with tough questions. Try to return it.
Quality-Improvement Step #2: Make a list of anything that was annoying or inconvenient.
Quality-Improvement Step #3: Gather your team, review the list, and come up with better alternatives.
The beauty of this system is that sometimes even the simplest changes can make a bigger difference than you might imagine.
Take a hard look at all the things you do because "it’s always been that way" - and see if you can do better. Then use this easy three-step method to distinguish your company from the rest of the pack.
How to Fly With a Painful Knee
When you have a painful knee - whether it’s from an arthritis flare-up or a sports injury - you should use a cane for support when you walk. And when you sit, it’s best to keep the knee straight. This is a position of rest. It allows the kneecap to "float" and decreases pressure within the joint.
That’s easy to manage at home and in the office. But what if you have to fly? How do you keep your knee straight on a crowded plane?
The trick is to make sure you get the right seat.
If possible, sit on the aisle on the side opposite your painful knee. That will allow you to fully extend your leg into the aisle. Even better, get a bulkhead seat. In coach or on one-class flights, that’s where you have maximum legroom. And if you rest your foot on the bulkhead, you can not only keep your knee straight but also elevate it, which is ideal.
If you’re on any airline but Southwest, you will have an assigned seat. So get a note from your doctor requesting the bulkhead. You can also request it online, on the basis of disability.
If you’re on Southwest, which has a group boarding policy with open seating, ask an attendant for a blue pre-boarding pass. (You don’t even need a doctor’s note.) This will allow you to board early, before anyone but those in wheelchairs, increasing your chances to nab the bulkhead.
What if you get stuck in a seat that’s not on the aisle and not in the bulkhead? Push your foot under the seat in front of you. Then, when you can, recline your seat back. This will make it possible for you to approximate the straight-leg position.
Another thing that will help is to tense your quadriceps for six seconds several times during the flight. This strengthens the knee, disperses fluids within the joint, and moves blood through the leg. (As a bonus, it prevents deep venous blood clots too.)
With these few tips, you can soar… without the "sore."
[Ed. Note: Dr. Bill is William Thomas Stillwell, MD, Associate Professor of Clinical Orthopaedic Surgery at SUNY, Stony Brook. He is CEO of Dr. Bill’s Clinic Inc., and author of How to Eliminiate Knee Pain - Once & for All!]
It’s Good to Know: Cellphone Use in India
By Michael Masterson
Ten years ago, there were no cellphones in India. This year, there are 80 million. According to an International Data Corp. survey, that number is set to hit 500 million by 2010.
"Buy India telecom stock," our guide advised us.
(Source: News Post India)
The Internet Money-Making Secret of a Desperate Housewife.
More bills than money. Dave, bless his heart, was trying, but he just couldn’t keep their heads above water.
Vicky and her husband Dave were caught between a rock and a hard place.
Vicky couldn’t stand to see the pain on Dave’s face.
That night fate intervened… Vicky got her hands on something very special.
What she saw changed her life… forever!
- Patrick Coffey
Indian Word to the Wise: Khaki
"Khaki" (KAK-ee) is a dull yellowish brown. It is also a sturdy cotton cloth in this color that was first used for the uniforms of the British cavalry in India and is still used for military uniforms. "Khaki" is Urdu (a language widely spoken in India) for "dusty" or "dust colored."
Example (as used by Irish journalist Patrick MacGill): "One of the first things we had to learn was that our ancient cathedral town has its bounds and limits for the legions of the lads in khaki."
[Ed. Note: Become a more persuasive writer and speaker … build your self-confidence and intellect … increase your attractiveness to others … just by spending 10 VERY enjoyable minutes a day with ETR’s new Words to the Wise CD Library.]
Michael Masterson
Copyright ETR, LLC, 2007